Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Cup of Joe: My Biggest Secret To Being A Successful Entrepreneur” plus 2 more

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Cup of Joe: My Biggest Secret To Being A Successful Entrepreneur
San Fran SMB’s Fight to Keep Yellow Pages
Advertisers and Agencies Differ on Digital Spending

Cup of Joe: My Biggest Secret To Being A Successful Entrepreneur

Posted: 11 Mar 2011 09:05 PM PST

Self confidence is everything.

What separates successful entrepreneurs from you? If you are already successful, then what have you got that others don’t? Well, the truth is each of us have different qualities that help us succeed, but very few successful entrepreneurs have low self confidence. Being sure of yourself at every step of the way is crucial to finding success. It will dramatically improve your marketing, product development, and pricing.

I started making more money with my business when I realized I was really good at what I do. Understanding that gave me the confidence to price my products and services at a rate that was fair to myself. I started making more money when I had greater confidence in the products that I created. Realizing that helped me write and talk about them in a way that my time and energy deserved. I started making more money when I turned down potential projects and clients that I knew weren’t worth my time. Figuring that out helped me allocate my time and energy to projects and clients that valued what I offer.

But, how do you drum up that extra needed bit of self confidence? Well, I am not a self help book, but let me tell you how I did it.

Quit hanging around folks that don’t believe in you. You’re a cool person and anyone that doesn’t see that is a waste of your time and energy. You also need to know the difference between not believing in you and not understanding. For those of us that work and play on the internet, most of our family and friend don’t understand what we do. This doesn’t mean they don’t have confidence in us, they just don’t understand. Know the difference and separate the two.

Start doing. Doing what? Whatever it is that you need confidence in. Been talking about starting a new business? Want to write a book? Quit talking and thinking about these things, and start doing them. After they are done you can sit back and feel good about how awesome you are for getting it done!

Don’t be a guru. It seems like social media is full of folks that think if they fool themselves and those around them at thinking they are a guru they will some how acquire a new level of self confidence. The truth is, that’s just shallow arrogance, instead of trying to be the best SEO or the best affiliate marketer. How about be the best at meeting your own needs? Find confidence in ranking your own sites and filling your own back account. That is far more important than writing a blog post and speaking at conferences under the guise of a guru.

Be one with your community. I can’t even tell you how many times I have felt like a complete rock star after helping someone out in my community. Being a reliable source that people can come to with questions and help, is EXTREMELY satisfying.

So now you are on your way to having all the self confidence you need right? Great! But don’t forget this isn’t about you. Sure, self confidence starts with you, and ultimately you are the only one responsible for it, but it affects so much more than you. Don’t get me wrong, all the added perks are great, more money, more time, ect. But in the end, its more about positioning yourself in a place that enables you to perform better for the people around you.

If you provide client services, then higher self confidence enables you to take risks and push through work for them that you normally wouldn’t. If you create and sell products, then higher self confidence will help you build better products that take advantage of your entire imagination.

Or if you go to a ’9 to 5′ job each day (is there really such a beast in this industry?), then higher self confidence will help you do your job better and build a stronger foundation for the future. Either way, in the end, self confidence is more about everyone else than you.

But then again you already knew this, because you are already awesome!

San Fran SMB’s Fight to Keep Yellow Pages

Posted: 11 Mar 2011 04:53 PM PST

There was a day where the Yellow Pages phone directory had a coveted spot in every home and phone booth. These days, however, a huge number of phone directories go straight from the doorstep to the trashcan.

The Product Stewardship Institute estimates that phone books create 660,000 tons of waste per year and because they’re printed on low-grade paper, recycling isn’t easy. That’s why San Francisco Board of Supervisors President David Chiu has proposed a bill to stop the unsolicited drop off of these books. He’s suggesting that instead of an opt-out program, Yellow Pages delivery would be an opt-in program and that’s a big difference.

Neg Norton, president of the Yellow Pages Association told The Wall Street Journal that “Chiu has ‘significantly undervalued the value that Yellow Pages delivers to the city of San Francisco.’ San Francisco Chamber of Commerce CEO Steve Falk agreed saying that the Yellow Pages represent an important marketing tool for small businesses, especially those without a website. Falk is backed by a coalition of local business owners who are speaking out against the proposal.

It’s an odd fight. The SMB’s are responding as if that reduced number of books would reduce the number of people who see their ads, but dropping 10,000 books on doorsteps around the city doesn’t mean 10,000 people are using them.

With Chiu’s proposal people who need a phone book would still get one and the city would get a breather from the tonnage of waste. That’s got to be a win all around.

What do you think? Will Chiu’s proposal actually hurt local small business, or is this an idea that should be put in place all across the US?

Advertisers and Agencies Differ on Digital Spending

Posted: 11 Mar 2011 01:30 PM PST

Digital advertising is an important part of any company’s business, but according to a new report from Econsultancy and SAS, agencies and their clients have very different views on how that money should be spent.

Looking at this chart from eMarketer, we can see that 75% of agencies thought their clients should spend more money on mobile marketing but only 62% of advertisers agreed.

On the flip side, advertisers wanted to increase their spending on search, display and email marketing. Not only did their agencies not agree, but they went so far as to say that display dollars should be kept the same or decreased.

The biggest gap is in the area of the company website. 61% of advertisers think they need to spend more while only 39% of agencies agreed.

What these numbers imply is that agencies are willing to take a chance on newer options where advertisers prefer to stick with the tried and true. Understandable, but is it smart?

Another interesting finding is the fact that advertisers are much more confident in their ability to measure digital advertising success in comparison to the agencies they work with.

43% of advertisers felt they had a handle on measuring the success of display campaigns but only 17% of agencies agreed. And you know the a fore mentioned 75% of agencies that thought their clients should spend more on mobile. 64% of those agencies said they had a poor chance of measuring the ROI on mobile campaigns. Given that, it’s not surprising that advertisers are reluctant to throw more money at mobile.